I was looking forward to the release of THE QUIET ONES for a couple of reasons. 1) I’m a big fan of Jared Harris (and wish he could have replaced his father Richard as Dumbledore in the HARRY POTTER series) and 2) I’ve been following the movies of the revived Hammer Films with keen interest (this is #5 after WAKE WOOD, THE RESIDENT, LET ME IN, and THE WOMAN IN BLACK). It also ranks fifth when compared with the others.
I originally saw THE QUIET ONES in a theater and had trouble following it. Now with the DVD out, I used the subtitles to catch all the background dialogue and got much more out of it but I shouldn’t have to do that. The movie bears a strong resemblance to an early 1970s Hammer horror film called DEMONS OF THE MIND only it isn’t set in the 19th century. Like that film, despite some very effective moments, it’s ultimately a failure.
Although inspired by true events, the story and its characters are completely fictitious. Set in 1972, an Oxford University professor (Harris) and 3 students conduct unorthodox experiments on a mentally unstable young woman in an effort to get her to materialize her “inner demon”. They then hope to study it and then scientifically get rid of it. As is always the case in these matters, things do not go as planned and it ends badly.
A significant revelation late in the film comes from the 1960 cult favorite PEEPING TOM. Most of the movie is designed to resemble amateur documentation (not found footage). It works great until the end when it should have been abandoned. On the DVD commentary the filmmakers explain why they chose to continue it but I don’t agree. In the final analysis there are things I liked about THE QUIET ONES but I didn’t enjoy it.
The Capsule Critic 